The Rundown – April 2013

1. SHARE THINGS YOU HATE WITH PEOPLE YOU LOVE
Tired of Kim Kardashian? Lindsay Lohan? The cast of Twilight? Bicyclists who insist on riding on the Long Island Expressway service roads weaving in and out of traffic at 15 miles per hour? For all of you who continue to wish Mark Zuckerberg would bite the bullet and add a Dislike Button to Facebook, this is for you. Hater, a new social media app launched at SXSW’s Start-Up Village, is similar to Instagram, but instead allows you to share with the world all the things that annoy the hell out of you. Hater is available for free on iOS devices and will soon launch for Android.

2. GET YOUR 2013 EMPIRE PASSPORT
Beaches will soon begin charging on weekends. Don’t be one of the people cursing about paying up to $9 to walk the boardwalk in April. Yes, April. Pay for the season during your next trip to the local park and this annual pass will get you unlimited vehicle entry to almost all New York State parks—including Jones Beach, Sunken Meadow and more than 200 other beaches, forests and trails—through March 2014 for $65. Of course, you won’t be able to frolic in the buff at Fire Island this summer, but it’s still a pretty sweet deal.

3. FIND YOUR CAR
Download the Find Your Car app and you’ll never again have to ask anyone, “Dude, where’s my car?” This app remembers the GPS position of your car, hotel or any other location when you get there. And hours later when you’re lost, it shows your current position and your car position on the map, then uses Google Navigation to guide you to your car.

4. SEE MY AMITYVILLE HORROR IN THEATERS
For the first time in 35 years, Daniel Lutz, the boy who lived in the Amityville Horror house, recounts his version of the infamous haunting of 1975. The documentary reveals the horror behind growing up on Long Island as part of a world-famous haunting. The film is playing in select NYC theaters and is available on iTunes, Amazon and cable.

5. BUY AN ILLUMINATED UMBRELLA
The heavy heat of the sweltering summer beats down on the land with merciless force. A forceful gust builds, disrupting the stillness in the air and pushing a mass of clouds towards land. “Batten down the hatches,” she cried. And the rains came. These light-up umbrellas by Bright Night (Bright-Night.com) don’t just look awesome in April showers, they each come with a storyline straight out of a J. Peterman catalogue.

6. READ THE GREAT GATSBY
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary classic Gold Coast tale of the West Egg (Great Neck) and East Egg (Manhasset) was published on April 10, 1925, and is considered one of the “Great American Novels.” It is also listed at the top of the American Library Association’s list of banned and challenged classics. Required reading in many high schools, The Great Gatsby has been banned in some places over sexual references (He “took her”) and bad language (“son-of-a-bitch”). In 1987, the book was challenged at the Baptist College in Charleston, South Carolina.

7. WATCH LONG BEACH: LIFE AFTER HURRICANE SANDY
For those who weren’t in Long Beach immediately after Hurricane Sandy, this short documentary by Ana Maria Rico posted on Vimeo shows shocking scenes of a mangled boardwalk and a city facing an unimaginable aftermath. Watch it. It’s amazing.

8. TURN YOUR PHONE INTO A SUPERHERO
Marvel Chara-Covers bring your favorite Marvel heroine—and your iPhone 4 or 4S—to life. The satin-coated, rubberized hard-shell case slides on and doubles as a stand so you can listen to music on your phone while Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, The Joker and others pose before you in all their glory.

9. GOOGLE “THE REINVENT PAYPHONES DESIGN CHALLENGE”NYC’s payphone vendor agreements expire in 2014, and officials are looking to the public for innovative ideas to both replace them and make the city better connected. Students, urban planners, designers, technologists, architects, creators and legal and policy experts have come together to build physical and/or virtual prototypes imagining a new public utility through payphone infrastructure for the future. Check out the winning prototypes.

The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story is a meticulously researched, masterfully written and gorgeously illustrated graphic novel documenting the Beatles' manager's brief, beautiful and tortured life.